Today I've put Albie and Chandler into the retirement/holiday cage. Albie's "hurt" one of his front paws, I say "hurt" because I really can't figure out if he's actually hurt it or if it's neurological. Either way, we'd been thinking of putting the two of them into the retirement cage every few days to give them a break from the wee boys, mainly because the younger lads jump all over Albie sometimes and when we went away for the weekend a few weeks ago they really seemed to enjoy the break from the lads. I was thinking maybe one day in every three as I don't want them to have to be there full-time and I don't want them to forget each other and start fighting..

Anyway, how long can they be apart before they start to forget each other, or start to re-assert dominance? I was hoping to keep them in there for a few days, but we're going away at the weekend again and taking Albie and Chandler, so is 6 days too long?

I do think Albie would be much better suited to the retirement cage in the long-term, but I don't want Chandler to be too restricted or for the young boys to forget him... Would it be better to keep Albie there long-term and just have Chandler go between the two? Would Albie be okay on his own some days? I really worry about him ): But at the same time I don't want to limit Chandler or to have to re-intro him when Albie's not here anymore ):

I would take Chandler out for an hour or so to be with his friends every day the length of time they can be away from each other without having trouble on re-introduction will be different for every rat.

xx

_________________Laura Woods Bongo Fury Rattery - Hobby rattery breeding for Russian varieties and Mink and Cinnamon with plans for Pearl based in the future. Based in West Cork. We are NFRS and IFRA members.

_________________Laura Woods Bongo Fury Rattery - Hobby rattery breeding for Russian varieties and Mink and Cinnamon with plans for Pearl based in the future. Based in West Cork. We are NFRS and IFRA members.